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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1969.177.3
Title
Cinerarium
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
6th-2nd century BCE
Period
Hellenistic period
Culture
Etruscan
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/287368

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Alabaster
Dimensions
actual: 31 x 52 x 26 cm (12 3/16 x 20 1/2 x 10 1/4 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Harry J. Denberg, New York, NY (by 1969), gift; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1969.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Harry J. Denberg
Accession Year
1969
Object Number
1969.177.3
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums , written 1990
116

Cinerarium

The surfaces are covered with an earthy incrustation, creating a mottled effect. The ground or molding below the horse's feet is broken away, as if hollowed out underneath. Most of the animal's left leg and the rider's left foot are also lost.

The front panel only is carved with a triple fillet molding above, Doric triglyphs left and right, with base moldings below. In the inset relief of the front panel, between the triglyphs a young person enveloped in a cloak rides to the left on a large horse.

The architectural arrangement and sculptural format of this urn can be visualized by the older, Hellenistic Etruscan monuments from Volterra, carved in volcanic or alabaster-like stone. Between the pilasters of one example, Scylla is seen in the conventional, frontal view of Greek metalwork, of the fourth century B.C. The rider represents the deceased on his equestrian journey to the underworld, between two winged demons. The motif survived into monumental Roman Imperial funerary reliefs and sarcophagi (Giglioli, 1935, pls. CCCC, no. 3, and CCCXCVI, no. I, both in the Museo Guarnacci; Haynes, 1939, pp. 27-32, pls. I, II).

Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer

Publication History

  • Sotheby Sale, auct. cat. (London, England, 1966), 13 June, p. 77, no. 175.
  • Cornelius C. Vermeule III and Amy Brauer, Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 127, no. 116

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu